Articles | Volume 15, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-589-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-589-2024
Research article
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03 May 2024
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 03 May 2024

Applying global warming levels of emergence to highlight the increasing population exposure to temperature and precipitation extremes

David Gampe, Clemens Schwingshackl, Andrea Böhnisch, Magdalena Mittermeier, Marit Sandstad, and Raul R. Wood

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Cited articles

Abatzoglou, J. T., Williams, A. P., and Barbero, R.: Global emergence of anthropogenic climate change in fire weather indices, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 326–336, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080959, 2019. 
Bador, M., Terray, L., and Boé, J.: Emergence of human influence on summer record-breaking temperatures over Europe, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 404–412,  https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL066560, 2016. 
Blanusa, M. L., López-Zurita, C. J., and Rasp, S.: Internal variability plays a dominant role in global climate projections of temperature and precipitation extremes, Clim. Dynam., 61, 1931–1945, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-023-06664-3, 2023. 
Ciavarella, A., Cotterill, D., Stott, P., Kew, S., Philip, S., van Oldenborgh, G. J., Skålevåg, A., Lorenz, P., Robin, Y., Otto, F., Hauser, M., Seneviratne, S. I., Lehner, F., and Zolina, O.: Prolonged Siberian heat of 2020 almost impossible without human influence, Climatic Change, 166, 9, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03052-w, 2021. 
Deng, X., Perkins-Kirkpatrick, S. E., Alexander, L. V., and Stark, C.: Projected Changes and Time of Emergence of Temperature Extremes over Australia in CMIP5 and CMIP6, Earth's Future, 10, e2021EF002645, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002645, 2022. 
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Editorial statement
This study finds that >85% of the global population is exposed to warming nighttime temperatures robustly beyond natural variability, at a Global Warming Level of 1.5°C. This increases to >95% at 2.0°C. Daily maximum temperature follows a comparable trend. Thus, every small additional warming substantially increases human exposure to potentially detrimental climate conditions.
Short summary
Using a special suite of climate simulations, we determine if and when climate change is detectable and translate this to the global warming prevalent in the corresponding year. Our results show that, at 1.5°C warming, >85 % of the global population (>95 % at 2.0° warming) is already exposed to nighttime temperatures altered by climate change beyond natural variability. Furthermore, even incremental changes in global warming levels result in increased human exposure to emerged climate signals.
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